Academic Associate
Daria Melnikova Solignac received her PhD in East Asian Arts and Cultures from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018. Her research focuses on avant-garde and contemporary Japanese art and performance, with a particular interest in transcultural artistic networks and the politics of representation. She has taught East Asian art history at Columbia University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Melnikova Solignac has been awarded research grants from institutions including the Japan Foundation and the Toshiba International Foundation. At the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, she completed the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellowship and led a research project titled Japanese Engagements with the Former States of the Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe. She is also a member of the East Centre, University of East Anglia.
In addition to her academic work, she serves as an expert and art consultant, collaborating with art institutions and auction houses to broaden public engagement with Japanese art and promote its relevance in global art discourse. Her recent publication on the legacy of the Japanese avant-garde ceramic collective Sōdeisha appeared in Ceramics Now.
Selected Publications
Publications
- 2024, Daria Melnikova Solignac. “Avant-Garde Clay: Sōdeisha and Their Legacy in
Contemporary Japanese Ceramics.” Ceramics Now, Issue 5, pp. 44-53. - 2022, “Beyond the Circle” by Shirakawa Yoshio, trans. Daria Melnikova, Bunka-cho Art
Platform Japan. - 2021: Melnikova, D., “‘What is Futurism?” Russia and Japan Exchange Answers.” The
Art Bulletin. New York. Volume 103, Issue 1, pp. 89-110 (peer-reviewed). - 2020: Melnikova, D., “Japanese” in Foreign Language Index, ed. Jacob Stewart-Halevy,
Inaugural Issue (Fall 2020) (summary of recent scholarship on contemporary Japanese art in Japanese and English) - 2018: Melnikova, D., Body, Camera, Action: Understanding the Metamorphosis of Performance Art in Japan. Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania. 175 pp. Thesis/ Dissertation Book.
Exhibition Catalogues
- “The Waves of Avant-Garde in Japan,” “From Tokyo to Turin: The Whirlwind Informel and
Japanese Avant-Garde,” and “A Unique Trajectory of Aiko Miyawaki,” (Ader Auction
House: Paris, 2023) [exhibition catalogue essays]. - “Shaping Time: The Dialogue of Tradition and Creativity in Japanese Ceramic Art,” in The Way of Ash: 2000 years of Ceramics in Japan (MBA Fine Arts: Paris, 2023) [exhibition
catalogue essay]. - “Eri Iwasaki: Contemporary Nihonga,” SEIZAN Gallery New York (Tokyo/ Art Japan Co., New York / Art Japan USA, 2020) [exhibition catalogue essay].
- “Azechi Umetarō, Mount Aso” and “Mori Yoshitoshi, Festival” in A Sense of Place: Modern
Japanese Prints, ed. by Julie N. Davis (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
2015) [exhibition catalogue].